Line #3 Headscratchers/TheSopranos


1	'''As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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3	[[foldercontrol]]
4
5	[[folder:Carmela's standards]]
6	* Carmela repeatedly states that the reason she stays with Tony is that the Catholic Church frowns on divorce. If she's really concerned about her soul, wouldn't aiding and abetting a violent psychopath be much worse?
7	** Cognitive dissonance is a thing and a very common theme of the show.
8	** She's just looking for excuses anyway- the show makes it clear that she only stays with him because of all the (stolen) luxury goods and privileges he can provide her.
9	** Not an expert on La Cosa Nostra but how I always understood that member of La Cosa Nostra saw their actions as somewhat justified, just playing their part. Not being a criminal because it is easier or because they want to be outlaws, but rather because it is literally "their thing", their way of earning a livelihood. Now Carmela has been deeply integrated into this world since her teens, so she probably takes it as a given as well. And surely she is not the only Catholic person involved with the mob.
10	*** In one Melfi session, Tony even refers to himself and his underlings as "soldiers", with the justification that soldiers don't get sent to hell.
11	** I always thought that Carmela’s devotion to Catholicism was an intentional irony written into the show.
12	[[/folder]]
13
14	[[folder:Tony's inconsistent therapy sessions]]
15	* The timing of Tony's therapy sessions seemed incredibly inconsistent. Some episodes showed Tony just sitting there in silence for about a minute and then they would have a brief discussion before Melfi would say the time was up, and I can totally believe that Tony would just sit there and brood for almost an hour before saying something. Other episodes, however, had him bring up a topic as soon as he sat down, and then maybe five minutes would pass before Melfi says, "Okay, time's up." This is still an amazing show, but the pacing of these scenes was always a little jarring.
16	** It's possible that some of those scenes were legitimately short 10-20 minute sessions that Tony could fit into his day. He's obviously on an unusual schedule and for much of the series, he's trying to keep his therapy low-key to avoid looking weak. Melfi probably agreed to this arrangement because she's fascinated by him, personally and professionally.
17	** Are you sure that there are scenes that explicitly show the beginning of the session and end with Tony's time expiring? As I recall, any scene that shows Tony first sitting down will end with either Tony storming out early or the show cutting away after a significant comment has been made, implying that the session continued afterward.
18	[[/folder]]
19
20	[[folder: "I have come to reclaim Rome for my people!"]]
21	* This may be more of a no-longer-applicable "It Just Bugs Me" than a true Headscratcher, but I am genuinely curious... what is up with that "I have come to reclaim Rome for my people!" line Ralph uses in "University"? It's ostensibly from ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', except... it's ''not''. [[SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes Believe me, I know]]. My best guess is the script for the episode was written before the movie was out, ergo a(n old) script of the movie was appropriated somehow to cherrypick quotes from. But the episode originally aired in April of 2001 whereas the movie premiered in May of the previous year. Hard to say when shooting occurred, but it's strange that this was overlooked. Then again, maybe the ''Sopranos'' writers didn't have the same fastidious Fanboyism I do...
22	** I'm guessing it's just Ralph being annoying and ignorant. I feel like that's something Tony would know and get pissed off by, the misquote and the attention Ralph's drawing as a result.
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder: Why not kill Phil?]]
26	* Why doesn't Tony Blundetto kill Phil Leotardo when he has the chance? He leaves the scene with Billy dead on the floor, but Phil, the ruthless capo responsible for the death of Blundetto's friend is just there wounded. A final, personal point-blank shot is in order here. It's a hasty [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd9VuR3Oix8 scene]] and he has to get away quickly and his mind is not in an ideal state, but Tony B. should have known better.
27	** PlotArmor, most likely. If Tony B. shoots Phil along with Billy, boom, New York is no longer a major plot-driving problem, everything's roses for Jersey. Which would be the best outcome, yes, but not exactly conducive to more episodes of the show.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder: AJ's attempt on Junior]]
31	* How did AJ get past the guards when he "visited" Junior with a knife on him? Do those places really not check/pat down visitors in case of exactly what AJ attempted to do?
32	** They got lazy. AJ didn't exactly look physically threatening, the guards figure, hey, let this guy visit his uncle, probably nothing will happen.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder: Jimmy Altieri's informant status]]
36	* If Big Pussy really was the rat, then why did Jimmy get out of jail so suddenly? Just a bad coincidence?
37	** It's possible (maybe even likely) that Jimmy was also a rat. When he's accused of being a rat by Silvio, Jimmy just utters, "[[OhCrap Mother of God]]" before being executed.
38	** Yes, they were both flipped. It's not a coincidence considering Pussy was flipped a long time ago and Jimmy was clearly a new addition.
39	** When Tony, Paulie, and Silvio are reminiscing about Pussy's flip and subsequent murder, Tony observes that the feds want to put a flipped guy "back on the street and earning as soon as possible", so they don't have time for second thoughts. That's precisely the reason for Jimmy's swift release.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Tony's shooting]]
43	* In Season 6, after Tony gets shot why is the entire family, with no gloves or hairnets even, in the room looking at his open surgery? Is that just ArtisticLicenseMedicine? Not to mention, why is Tony lying there staring into an OPEN wound? It should have a big plaster on it, at the very least, to avoid exactly what he's doing, and to keep it clean.
44	** Someone's misremembering it. When the family is in the same room with Tony, the surgery hasn't begun yet. Shortly after, they are rushed out by the doctor for precisely what you're stating here, to begin the surgery. It looks like they were initially in the room with him when he's rolled in and just doing some initial tasks.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder: Why not prosecute Livia?]]
48	* With actual evidence against her, why Livia wasn't arrested by the FBI for conspiring to kill Tony with Junior?
49	** Chances of a conviction would've been low. Any good lawyer could make the case that she was a senile old lady who also suffered from battered woman syndrome and that she had been brainwashed over the years by Johnny Boy and Junior. All things considered, it would have probably been a big waste of time and money to bring her to trial. Besides this, it's not like Tony was a good guy anyway. With all the trouble he caused in North Jersey, do you think it would break the FBI's hearts if the hit was successful?
50	** Also note that they only had one piece of evidence. The state would never bring a case for criminal conspiracy against a suspect without spending time and money building the case up with far more research and evidence. The FBI is building a RICO case against the [=DiMeo=] family and Livia's involvement is superfluous to that goal. Plus they'd be tipping their hand to Junior, their actual target at the time of that investigation (with the tape being presented to Tony as a means to convince him to rat on his uncle). Basically, Livia is a distraction at best for the feds and if they had tried to try her they'd probably get laughed out of their jobs.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder: The FBI's competency]]
54	* Is the FBI helping anyone? Seems to me like everyone that the FBI turns ends up dead. And they don't provide much protection to people who are being sent into dangerous situations on their behalf. Yes, these people are cooperating because they're criminals, but the Feds don't seem too bothered whether they live or die, despite claiming to be on the moral high ground. Are there ever any repercussions for the FBI basically issuing death sentences for their informants?
55	** From a cynical perspective, one has to realize the characters have different values from the audiences. The FBI agents here don't exactly care about informants the way a viewer cares about Adriana or Big Pussy. To the audience, Adriana and Big Pussy are human beings with complicated circumstances. To the FBI, Adriana is guilty of helping cover up a murder, and facilitating a number of other criminal activities in "her club", including distribution of narcotics, bookmaking, and loan sharking; she's also living with, and protecting, a multiple murderer who works for yet another multiple murderer who "runs crime" in the area. Big Pussy is running a large heroin distribution scheme that could send him to prison for decades and has committed several murders, including two while "working" for the FBI (besides Bevilaqua, Big Pussy also killed Jimmy Bones, the guy who incidentally caught him while he was having a public meeting with his FBI handler). And despite being a "cooperating witness", he lies to his handler constantly, continuing to participate in criminal activity. The FBI, as depicted on the show, is "working with" duplicitous criminals who literally aren't "bothered by" covering up or committing multiple murders. In other words, crimes that would send them to prison and/or ruin their life. These criminals are the bad guys, cutting a deal with the good guys.
56	** Look at the prosecutor who lost the Junior trial. When he loses it, he chews out the agents for not taking the jury tampering seriously and leaves. Cubitoso then says, "You know what's going on here, right? He fucked up his six-figure future with O'Melveny & Myers when he blew the Junior Soprano trial. Of course, he'll keep trying him until he fixes that." It is very rare for a prosecutor to knowingly falsify evidence, but they’re human, and the only way they’ll get noticed and improve their prospects is with lots of convictions, preferring big ones. No one is looking to nominate someone to the bench or offer a huge salary to the prosecutor who dismissed or plead out the most high-profile cases three years in a row. That same attitude applies to the FBI. Running Adriana and coordinating her bringing her mob captain boyfriend in to testify is going to look good on the next performance evaluation. Witness disappears? "Well, shit, there goes my promotion, better work on the next rat."
57	** It's a constant (albeit not heavily emphasized) thread throughout the series that the FBI isn't that much better than the people they're chasing.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder: Why not bug a car?]]
61	* Why didn't the FBI just bug a car? There are many instances in the show in which Tony and a friend of his discuss business while driving. Tony openly discusses taking out Carmine Lupertazzi in season 4 when Christopher picks him up (straight out of rehab). There are plenty of other criminal conspiracies that are discussed en route to whatever meeting. It seems like an easy task for the feds to plant a bug in a car overnight. If they could bug Tony's basement with the lamp, they could surely put a bug in his Suburban and everyone else's vehicles. And while the mobsters were very diligent about having the Bada Bing and Satriale's regularly swept for bugs, it's a far fetch to think that these gangsters would also inspect their cars regularly enough for bugs.
62	** Overnight, sure, but it'd be really risky operating in such a tight timeframe - plus there's always the chance that the bug shorts out in a car wash, it starts malfunctioning due to wear and tear, something. Maybe they didn't think it was worth the effort after the lamp shenanigans.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder: Tony and Fabian Petrulio]]
66	* How was Tony never considered a person of interest for "Fred's" murder? Tony found Fabian Petrulio, who was relocated from the witness protection program. Tony does some digging to find out if "Fred" is his true identity and then after confirmation, he strangles him outside his trailer where he conducted his travel agency business. But if law enforcement had done just a basic investigation they would've discovered that he was ex mafia and would have had enough evidence to suspect Tony of the murder. Tony and Meadow left a lot of paper trail behind (college admissions, motel bookings, etc.). Carmela received a phone call from Dr. Melfi asking for Tony Soprano. In response, Carmela tells her that he's not home so there goes his "I was home" alibi. The day before Fred's death, he went around town asking people if they've seen a tall man with a "New York" sounding accent, so there are witness testimonies. But okay, after all of this let's give the feds the benefit of the doubt and say that's not evidence to convict him. If the feds visit Tony in time for questioning, the cut on his hand could also be used as evidence against him for strangulation (and the mud on his shoes) making a case for murder.
67	** With no witnesses to the murder itself and Petrulio having a long list of enemies, it would be impossible to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. They would have enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Tony, but he'd lawyer up immediately, then later claim that yes, he was in that area taking Meadow to colleges, but never saw Petrulio and had no idea he was even there.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Big Pussy's "options"]]
71	* Did Big Pussy really have "options" as Tony said? Let's imagine that during that meeting in Big Pussy's living room, Pussy would have come clean to Tony about working with the FBI. Would his fate have been any different? Friends or no friends, a rat is a rat, but coming clean about it would've meant some leniency from Tony.
72	** Had Sal told Tony -in Sal's house, where Sal's wife could hear them- that Sal was working with the FBI, there would have been "options". However, none of them were good, for either guy.
73	*** First, had Sal told Tony he was working with the FBI, Tony would have had no choice but to leave the house immediately. Is the FBI outside, watching? Is the house bugged?
74	*** Second, Sal would still have had to prove his worthiness to the FBI. Which he could not do. Sal had no (provable) knowledge of Tony's "high crimes". Sal ran a chop shop where stolen cars were moved around for parts. He then delivered an "envelope" to Tony. That envelope probably also contained the proceeds of Sal's heroin trafficking. Neither of those criminal activities directly involved Tony Soprano. Thus, Sal's core competency as a criminal did not have applicability to the FBI's desire to "get Tony."[[note]]Brief digression: Had the FBI gotten Ralph Cifaretto or Vito Spatafore to flip, they'd have had a gold mine of evidence with which to nail Tony (and Carmine Lupertazzi, Johnny Sack, etc.). The difference is the type of crimes Tony could be implicated in. Tony's involvement in the Esplanade was connected to union corruption, payoffs, bid-rigging, and extortion, among other things.[[/note]]
75	*** It would be very hard for the FBI to prove that Sal's payoffs to Tony demonstrated (beyond a reasonable doubt) that Tony was "directing" a heroin trafficking scheme. Had the prosecution advanced such a theory, Tony's defense lawyers could have discredited in a number of ways, up to [[ConfessToALesserCrime admitting a "stake" in the chop shop]] and making it seem like the payoffs were connected to that set of crimes that unlike drug trafficking, carry much lighter sentences (and state, not federal) charges.]]
76	*** Basically, Big Pussy had nothing the FBI could use on Tony. That's why they brought him back after his trip to see "The Jonas Salk of backs". Because while a low-level soldier getting 20 years for heroin trafficking is a goal for the FBI, the bigger goal was to use assets like Sal to "move up the chain" and connect bosses to RICO predicates. However, that requires evidence and Sal had none. He could have testified to crimes he and Tony conducted together (for instance, the Bevilaqua murder) but he'd have to have told them about those crimes. And Sal had, up to his execution, tried to [[PlayingBothSides play both sides]]. He knew he had nothing the FBI wanted, so he was "volunteering" to wear a wire but he was also withholding actual knowledge of actual crimes, in the hopes he could wiggle free of the FBI without giving up Tony.\
77	So, Sal could have told Tony. And Tony would have walked away, doing nothing, because Sal could have been under surveillance. (Also, Tony would have had to spend way more money on lawyers.) However, Sal would have had his "agreement" voided and he'd have been sentenced to ~20 years. His wife (and kids) would have lost their house, their savings, their shop, everything. And he'd have been in the no-man's-land of prison: a known "informer" who tried, and failed, to sell out his boss. So, he had an option. But it was a shitty, awful option.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder: Could Adriana have lived?]]
81	* Is there anything Adriana could have done to avoid getting killed? Or was she just done for as soon as she got questioned by the FBI?
82	** Adriana could have been a successful and long-running 'rat' if she had been a bit more careful. Ray Curto managed to last almost the entire series as a rat due to being discreet and sharp enough to avoid being found out, and his end came via natural causes.
83	*** There's a difference between the two. Ray Curto was a captain, intimately involved in Tony's business, present for all sorts of meetings and conversations, and thus able to feed the feds a steady diet of information. Adriana ran a nightclub that Tony sometimes used as a third office (along with his offices at the Bada-Bing and Satriale's), but Tony and Christopher deliberately kept her out of any business discussions. The few times Adriana did try nosing around in Christopher's business, he immediately became suspicious. Really, she was doomed the minute the FBI decided to target her.
84	** What Adriana should have done when the FBI first brought her in was demand a lawyer. This would have led to the feds officially charging her for the drugs and then she could go to Christopher for help. Christopher then would've told Tony what happened and Tony would've gotten Mink to help her out with her case. Odds are that as a first time offender, she probably would've avoided prison time, but probably would have lost the club and had to do community service. The feds would avoid targeting her thereafter because Tony would've then known what they tried to do.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Busting out Scatino]]
88	* So how much did Tony and Richie get from "busting out" David Scatino? He owed about $53,000 to the two of them, not including interest. He gave Tony his kid's car, which could have wiped anywhere from $5-$15,000 off his debt as the car wasn't new. With all the stuff they ordered, the plane tickets probably being the most expensive, could he have managed to fully extinguish the debt? Related questions: 1) would it have made more sense to simply take a percentage of his profits instead of busting out his store, or would that have taken too long or possibly involved his wife. 2) Could Scatino have called the police or FBI on Tony, or sued him for monetary damages? Sure, he may well have been killed in that case, but he clearly could have recorded Tony and Richie discussing defrauding suppliers.
89	** It's questionable whether there would be any conventional profits to take a percentage of. Remember that David owed Richie $400 or so a week, seemingly a paltry sum for such a big store, and couldn't even manage that. So a bustout would be the most realistic option. As for Tony and Richie's profits: 200 plane tickets with a face value of $500 each = $100,000 right there. In addition, a sporting and outdoor goods store could plausibly order everything from camping equipment to food, clothes, sports equipment, expensive athletic shoes, and official pro and college jerseys (which retail for $200 or more) which are then all sold on the street, or to other retailers who don't ask questions, for whatever Tony and Richie's people can get. An example is the Ramlösa water that Artie got such a great deal on. It's simply a matter of how far David's lines of credit can be stretched; once his usual sources are maxed out, they'll send him to short-term loan vendors with ridiculous interest rates to keep the cash coming in as long as possible. Once everything's tapped out, it's bankruptcy time. Bottom line is that Tony and Richie probably walked away with a few hundred thousand dollars in profit. The only costs are those Tony and Richie don't care about: David is financially and emotionally destroyed, his wife (who owned the store) has ruined credit, and has to get a job with no place to live since their house was probably foreclosed on, and Eric, who qualified for Georgetown, has watched his family implode and now has to settle for Montclair State since that's all his uncle Vic can afford.
90	** As for the hypothetical of Scatino suing Tony...well, this would be a very peculiar circumstance for a bankruptcy attorney: after the "bust-out", Scatino's debts must have been ''staggering'', but in theory at least, all the crap Scatino's business "gave" for the mobsters to sell (or take for themselves) were a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_conveyance fraudulent transfer]] or an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfair_preference unfair preference]], meaning Scatino and/or the trustee would be well within their rights to sue Tony to make him give the money back. The burden of proof is a lot smaller in civil cases, so Scatino would probably easily win given the amount of evidence in his favor. But in practice, who would in their right mind sue a mobster in civil court?
91	*** The problem in this line is that while he was reluctant, Scatino was a willing participant in this endeavor. He would be on the hook for federal charges for bank fraud, credit fraud, and grand theft from his suppliers for purchasing on credit that he had absolutely no intent on actually paying. He also could not afford any decent lawyer given his debts, not that one would take him up on it given that his case would be "my partner in crime screwed me out of the proceeds of a crime".
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder: Where are the police?]]
95	* Why aren't the police investigating all those shootings and murders? Tony and his crew are endlessly worrying about the FBI, but shouldn't they also be worried more about state and local cops investigating and/or arresting them for their various crimes? Sure the Mafia has influence and leverage over some of the civil servants who can control the local police (e.g. Zellman) and some cops are on the Mafia's payroll, like Bobby's contact and Vin Makazian, but that doesn't cover everyone.
96	** Hell, the shooting of the waiter is the most surprising. Some guy goes out to confront two known gangsters, gets shot and there is no fallout for Chris and Paulie whatsoever. In real life, that case would have almost certainly caught up with the crew, and the local police would've quickly tracked both of them down and arrested them both. You can't just pop somebody in a popular restaurant parking lot in Atlantic City like it's the 1920s ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. Not to mention a whole table of mobsters, including the boss of New Jersey, several of his capos, and the underboss of the Lupertazzis spend the rest of the evening gambling in the same building, AFTER having eaten a meal served by the waiter who was found dead. Another example is the assassination attempt on Christopher: despite being shot multiple times by Sean Gismonte, Christopher is able to return fire and kill Sean before he passes out. This is a clear-cut case of self-defense, but Christopher was still carrying a handgun. There's no way he could've had a concealed carry permit because they're tough to get in New Jersey, and impossible in Christopher's case as he's got a moderate felony record, which would make it illegal for him to carry or even possess a firearm.
97	** There are so many other scenes where there are murders that are spur-of-the-moment things, where in real life, it wouldn't have been hard for the police to trace it back to the responsible party and either arrest them or put their crew under a microscope. The Pine Barrens. The waiter. JT Dolan, Chris's sponsor. Tony killing Ralph. Janice and Richie. The guy Vito hits with his car on his way back to New Jersey. The only ones not really drawing heat are Ralph and Richie since they were disliked individuals that nobody except maybe their spouses would report them missing, but most of the others, especially the ones who were civilians and not in the life would have drawn a lot of heat.
98	** There are two things going on: 1) It’s implied throughout the series (and specifically called out in Season 2 when the witness to Matt Bevilaqua's murder recants his statement upon learning that the suspects were mobsters) that the Soprano crew (Tony especially) is feared and very good at intimidating witnesses. 2) In "Soprano Home Movies", the local police do try to bust Tony on a gun charge (related to the gun he dropped while fleeing the FBI when they were arresting Johnny Sack) and they’re immediately chewed out by the Feds and that gets folded into their RICO case against him. Neil Mink also mentions in the series finale that since Carlo Gervasi is talking, they could potentially charge Tony with murder, which means all the murder Tony and crew hasn’t been forgotten, it’s been happening in the background. In either case, the show is about a sociopath Mafia boss balancing his two families and how his upbringing/environment made him that way. This isn't a cops and robbers story like ''Series/{{Daredevil\|2015}}'', ''Series/{{Luke Cage\|2016}}'', or ''Series/TheWire''.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder: Junior leaving his house]]
102	* How was Junior able to leave his house ("Where's Johnny") when he had an electronic monitoring bracelet? Wouldn't the bracelet alert that he left the house and police be trying to find him?
103	** After a certain amount of time, Junior didn’t have to wear it anymore. At that point, he’d been under house arrest for more than a year. They might’ve realized he wasn’t a flight risk after enough time. Also, when ''The Sopranos'' was made, ankle bracelets couldn’t track movement the way that modern ones and phones do. They were fairly simple devices that were wirelessly linked to a box on the house phone line. The way they worked is that (with the exception of when Junior was leaving his house to do something he was allowed to do under house arrest like grocery shopping, or visit his doctor or his lawyer) if the monitor moved too far from the box and the signal was lost, the box would automatically send a notification to the police.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Junior's senility]]
107	* We know Junior was faking his senility at first to manipulate the courts. He fooled the police, the courts, and his neighbors. Then he had a brief medical issue that caused dementia but that was supposed to have been resolved and he was supposed to be normal again. However, he kept acting like he was increasingly losing his memory. As a result he didn’t go to jail but to a much more comfortable prison hospital. So it paid off for him to keep up the act even until the last episode. Was he faking it?
108	** At first, he was just playing it up for obfuscation reasons. By the start of season 5, it was all real. When Feech la Manna gets out of prison, Junior asks Bobby to make him eggs twice in like two minutes and referred to Tony Blundetto as "Tony Egg." He confuses Larry David and Jeff Garlin on TV for himself and Bobby when he really had no reason to do so purposefully. By the end of the series, he doesn't even remember Tony beyond the fact that he used to play catch with him, and the old Junior is totally gone.
109	*** The tipping point might have been the fracas on the courthouse steps in Season 4 where he took a big fall after being whacked in the head with the boom mic. Before then, it was all an act. Afterward, he began to show real signs of mental decline.
110	*** When they are practicing the questions on the dementia test, there's a point at which Junior can't seem to remember his name (although Tony and Bobby don't grasp that).
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Adriana's death]]
114	* How did the mob get away with Adriana's murder? It just seems so sloppy and I seriously doubt the mob would have gotten away with it. The FBI gave her and Christopher until 1:00 pm on the day of her death to pack and enter the witness protection program. Adriana was on the phone with the FBI right before she got the call about Christopher "being in the hospital." Adriana was so serious about starting over that it doesn't make sense that she didn't call the FBI back and tell them about the emergency with Christopher and that their plans had to be delayed. Christopher would have to be questioned by the police anyways regardless of being in the mob because he is the fiance of a missing person, they have to interview friends and family. Also, if Adriana had her cell phone with her, didn't they have the technology back then to trace its last location/GPS, or what if Silvio forget to look for her cell? And properties like hers have surveillance cameras, even back in 2005, so wouldn't the FBI be able to see Silvio picking up Adriana at her apartment or see Christopher abandoning her car in the parking lot? Adriana's mother would have told the police to question the mob about her going missing.
115	** Sadly, I doubt law enforcement cared that much about Adriana's fate. Given the situation she was in prior to her death, they probably assumed she ran and closed the case after going through the perfunctory motions. The feds were putting huge amounts of resources into the RICO cases against Tony and Johnny Sack, so it is doubtful that they would put all hands on deck to investigate the disappearance of a low-end mobster's girlfriend who wasn't giving them much anyway.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder: To cooperate with law enforcement or not to cooperate?]]
119	* From early on in the series, Tony is extremely dedicated to the idea that members of “their thing” took an oath and that they should never break it. Throughout the series, it seems like there are moments where he would maybe start to understand working with the police on some level. Case in point: Johnny Sack. When Phil lays into how he lost respect for Johnny crying, Tony sympathizes with how a daughter can be a weak spot for a man, but later says he couldn’t believe he called John a friend once John admits to being a part of organized crime. Tony is one of the few from his generation that has never faced major jail time, plus we know down the line he starts to view his crews and capos as more like paychecks than family and never hesitates to kill off his own blood. But would he flip if he was backed into a corner? In the last episode, he surely would’ve been indicted any day at that point. The FBI had multiple informants, some of who he didn’t even know about.
120	** Tony would flip. He came to see what a bunch of bullshit the mob life was, but he was convinced (maybe rightly so) that he was trapped in it, and he was pissed about it. But there would be no plea deal for him. He really only knew about the Lupertazzi family, and by the end of the show, he was a bigger fish than the Lupertazzis had been. Yeah, the New York crews are a bigger family, but so what? Those guys had [[HighTurnoverRate a revolving door of Bosses]] [[SuccessionCrisis after Carmine Sr. died]], whereas Tony had been Boss or Street Boss for the [=DiMeo=] family for 7 years. They're not going to let Tony go free for Butchie; more likely, they'll nail Tony for life in prison and use somebody like Paulie to go after the New York outfits.
121	*** Tony could give up more than the Lupertazzis. He was also involved with Russian money laundering, the prescription drug racket in Montreal, the HUD swindle involving at least one Newark alderman, and had black market connections up and down the east coast. He could give the Feds ''a lot'', given the right deal.
122	** The FBI was building a case against Tony and didn’t need information from him. The goal was to take him down. We didn’t really see who was going after the New York families but those agents could make an offer but doubtful if they have informants already under control.
123	** Based on Tony's behavior and tendencies, he would take the easy way out and snitch. In the end, he looks for someone to blame or for the easy way. Of course, he would be pressured into talking. If the financial squeeze the FBI were able to put on a mafioso's real family was what got old school gangster Johnny Sack to allocute and plead guilty, it would flip Tony too. A recurring theme throughout the show is that guys who don't flip (like Tony Blundetto and Phil Leotardo) suffer immense consequences. They waste the prime years of their life in prison while the guys they protected flourished, and they have little or no appreciation for the loyal people who didn't rat them out. Those guys were total chumps in hindsight. A theme David Chase revisits constantly in the show was the hypocrisy and self-interest these guys display. The rules are often respected, but these are psychopaths and murderers for whom rules are more often than not just another code for them to exploit.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder: Arrests at Jackie Jr.'s funeral]]
127	* Why did the FBI arrest Christopher and Silvio at Jackie Jr.'s funeral? They weren't hiding or anything, and thank god they didn't like Jackie, but imagine it was someone they loved who died. Also, why did Junior, Bobby, and Paulie run away, but not Tony? If Junior was somehow wanted by the police they could get him so easily, as he was on house arrest, why get him at the funeral?
128	** To understand the intent of the funeral scene, one must be familiar with the concept of Kremlinology, which is the study of secretive organizations using limited information. The term originates in the American intelligence community who often had to study the still photographs of funerals for Communist party officials -and observing who talked to who, who stood next to who- to guess at who was working with who, who had influence, etc. In the 1980s, the FBI borrowed from their colleagues in the CIA and began to do the same thing for the Mafia, and take photos of everyone. A famous example of this was the Genovese family squad: having no information at the "start" of their investigation, they decided to cut holes in a paper bag, put the paper bag on an agent's head, and then drive slowly through the area where some associates operated and taking photos of everyone who reacted. Then, they'd try to put names to faces, using informants.\
129	In ''The Sopranos'', the funeral scene is there to show how law enforcement had to operate to get information on "the secret society". And another thing to remember is that as convicted felons, most of these guys are not legally allowed to associate with each other. And yeah, it's a stretch to use such a justification at a funeral, but the show was never too concerned with being fair to the FBI. Showing that these guys were subject to arrest, even at a funeral, was a key piece of information for the viewer. It's also the sort of event where they could grab everyone with a warrant at once.
130	** It’s SuperBowl weekend, Silvio says at the time he’s being arrested that the DA likes to grab some headlines by arresting mobsters, even if they have nothing on them - it’s Essex County police who do it and not the FBI - Chris and Silvio are probably the most involved in the gambling / sports book (Paulie gives it to Chris to run after he’s made) which is why it’s them who are arrested. The fact that it’s also Jackie Jr’s funeral is a co-incidence really, but also gives the police a chance to be dicks and disrupt it, and the show loves to show how petty they can be at every opportunity. Junior is under House Arrest still so shouldn’t be there, and Paulie may be on parole so shouldn’t be associating with some of the others, or maybe thinks they’ll arrest him too due to his involvement in the gambling side of the business. The whole running away from the police at the funeral also ties into the general theme all episode of how disrespectful most of the family are around Jackie Jr’s death.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Valery's fate]]
134	* So...[[UncertainDoom what did happen to that Russian guy in the forest?]] Did he just die of exposure and a gunshot to the head and they never found his body? Seems likely enough, but then wouldn't there be some kind of fallout with the Russian mob leader who adored the guy? If he just went missing and was never found again, it happening the same day two of Tony's men went to pick up money from him is super suspicious. And if he did survive, I doubt he'd be forgiving enough to just take it all lying down. Tony was rightfully pissed about the whole thing when it happened, so why wasn't there any fallout at all?
135	** The lack of fallout indicates that Valery is dead. In fact, if you pay attention to the scene, you can see one of Paulie´s gunshots hit the side of his head. Considering that both Christopher and Paulie are Too Dumb to Live, it's not pushing to say that they simply missed the corpse.
136	** David Chase said in an interview that he believes Valery (the Russian) lived but suffered severe brain damage. His idea (which he wrote but never filmed) was that an unconscious Valery was found a day later by a Boy Scout troop and taken to a hospital. He was reunited with Slava (the Russian guy Tony was laundering money with) but the gunshot left Valery essentially lobotomized. A couple of seasons later, Christopher and Tony visit Slava's business for something or other. Christopher encounters Valery sweeping the floor, and Valery looks him right in the face but doesn't recognize him. Again, this is something Chase wrote but never filmed.
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder: Tony's vulnerability to rats]]
140	* One thing that stands out to me about how the Jersey family mob operates on this show is the sheer number of murders carried out by those at or near the top--i.e. Tony, Silvio, Paulie, et al. instead of assigning hits to low-level associates, who take their orders either from other associates or from soldiers, who in turn take orders from their capos, who in turn take their orders from the boss. It would seem to me that by the last few episodes of the show, Tony has reason to believe that those closest to him are liabilities for that very reason. He kills Christopher following the car crash because by that point he figures he is too much of a liability in a general sense to keep around anymore. Christopher, like Tony, Silvio, and Paulie, has directly carried out hits and/or disposed of the bodies. Silvio is in a coma at the end of the show and everyone else involved in such activities is either dead or in Furio's case back in Italy. (Although there is also Uncle Pat and his farm. But he is retired and thus there is virtually no chance of him becoming a rat. Janice kills Richie but is likewise not otherwise involved in the mob's affairs.) Tony sure seemed like he was thinking about whacking Paulie when they go down to Florida after the body of the first guy they killed together is exhumed. So why didn't he?
141	* Note that the final straw for Tony was the tree branch impaling the baby car seat, showing him that Chris was going to continue to be reckless with no regard for how it affects him or others. This is on top of a pattern of behavior that makes him less useful and more likely to flip - he's depressed, he's feeling guilty, he might try to absolve himself to the FBI. Paulie is... less than competent sometimes, but he's senior enough and personally close enough to Tony that he gets away with it, plus he's demonstrated competence or at least a survival instinct in the past (see: the Colombos in the '70s).
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder: Paulie's and Junior's mistresses]]
145	* Since both Paulie and Junior are unmarried, wouldn't their goomahs be called girlfriends?
146	** Technically, yes. In practice, they're probably used to the term. Also, "girlfriend" has the connotations of a long-term relationship that might move into marriage, which neither of them are interested in.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Livia's resentment towards Tony]]
150	* Why, exactly, ''was'' Livia so resentful towards her son anyway? He was the only one of her three children that never really abandoned her. And he basically grew up to be just like his father (Livia, being an amoral mob-wife, obviously had no problem with her son being a career criminal). So, why was she so resentful towards him?
151	** Livia seems to be just a bad person. I believe in the [[Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark prequel film]] she denigrates a school official who is trying to tell her that her son is very smart despite his bad grades, so it goes beyond any bitterness in old age.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:How does Tony avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs?]]
155	* It is established that Tony slept with hundreds of women over the course of his adult life, many of whom were seedy strippers and low-end sex workers. We also know that he doesn't use condoms and he isn't vasectomized. Just from a numbers standpoint, he seems incredibly lucky to have never accidentally impregnated a woman or contracted a sexually transmitted disease. On a related note, why isn't Carmela nervous or reticent to have sex with Tony knowing his history and habits? Given that he swings his unsheathen dick all over North Jersey, shouldn't she be afraid of catching something from him?
156	** Probably LawOfConservationOfDetail. If there's not going to be a plot about it, it's not necessary to include. Also, maybe it's another part of her denial. Sure, she blows up at him about it, but all the other time she's probably just pretending it doesn't exist.
157	[[/folder]]

Context Headscratchers / TheSopranos